It is my esteemed pleasure and privilege to present to you, the readers of Welcome to the Mast, my very first interview. Fred Van Lente is a writer - currently at Marvel - who is responsible for such comics as the amazing Action Philosophers, The Incredible Hercules on-going and X-Men Noir. To add to these, he has penned for Fantastic Four, Deadpool, Iron Man and Spider-Man!
I met Mr. Van Lente at a comic signing held at Gosh Comics, where he made me a very happy chap by signing my Deadpool #900 (He wrote one of the best stories contained therein). Time passed and to my shock, I'm interviewing the guy for my blog!
Thanks to Mr. Van Lente for giving his time to a fan and for contributing to my blog. Here's the interview, enjoy!
The Mast: At what age did you start reading comics, what comics were you really into growing up and what exactly attracted you to the medium of comics above all else?
F.V.L: Comics were a part of my earliest reading memories. My mother tells me I taught myself to read around the age four because she got sick of me asking her to read the same comics over and over again, so I just sat there and matched words to pictures until I could figure the stories out on my own.
I think it was superheroes that attracted me more than anything else to comics when I was a kid. I liked horror, and spies, and anything that merged fantasy with the real world. I had a brief interest in sword and science/science fiction when I was in junior high, but for the most part - and particularly now that I'm an adult - I vastly prefer my imagining a bit closer to home than alien worlds or Middle Earth.
The Mast: I'm curious, as someone who writes myself, what moment caused you to think to yourself: "That's what I want to do, I want to write comics.", and how did you go about becoming a writer?
F.V.L: I knew from an early age I wanted to write. In high school I wrote prose, then I went to film school to study screenwriting. At Syracuse University, I fell in with the local comics club, which was comprised of a bunch of guys who were studying illustration and wanted to become comics artists. I started writing stuff for them, and two of them, Steve Ellis and Ryan Dunlavey, became two of the most important collaborators in my career. After school, I ended up moving out with them in New York City. So really it was the friends I was with that made me gravitate toward comics more than anything else - I had an obvious in.
The Mast: I've written quite a few short or full-length stories featuring Marvel characters; it sort of reminds me of the childhood concept of when you'd play with toys and play out stories, but on a more imaginative scale. It seems to give you a platform unlike any other. Anything you want to exist can inarguably exist on those pages. I first felt the overwhelming joy of it when I finished a Deadpool story I had been writing. My next question is: Did you ever have a particular story, short or full-length, that gave you that same sense of true joy when you finished it? Is there one or a couple that stand out above all else?
F.V.L: When I first started at Marvel, I was put on the All-Ages Marvel Adventures books, which all have to be self-contained, 22-page "done-in-ones"; and that's a great proving ground to hone your craft. They're just a good way to combine humor, pathos, and nice character bits. Some of my favorite stories from that era are The Unnatural from M.A. Spider-Man; that was about Peter Parker using his Spidey powers to excel on his high school baseball team, and his guilt about that. In M.A. Iron Man we did a story called The Bunker, about Tony's relationship about his father; I was very proud of that.
The first kids story I ever did was called King of the Monsters in M.A. Fantastic Four, about the Thing. Who, in one of his woe-is-me moods, takes over from the Mole Man in running Monster Island. I really was happy with how that turned out, and in San Diego at the Marvel booth, a mom and a four year old girl told me it was her favorite story ever, and kept asking for it to be read to her. So considering that's how I started out in comics - annoying my mother - it was a nice feeling to have come full circle.
The Mast: Obviously, in comics now, there are many kinds of characters across many different companies; multi-faceted, multi-layered characters that have seen different treatment at the hands of many different writers. Alan Moore once said that he feels his influence with Watchmen has worked to hurt the comic industry creatively, simply because now everyone tries to make their characters somewhat dark and layered. Thus forgetting the need for silly fantasy sometimes. Do you agree/disagree with this to any degree, and is that what draws you to such things as Action Philosophers and characters like Hercules? I say that due to the fact that Hercules is always ranked as someone who is remarkably enjoyable, funny and entertaining, carrying with him a slight air of ridiculousness, whilst still being a badass who can be used in serious storylines.
F.V.L: With all due respect to Mr. Moore, I think he may be overstating his influence. The history of the superhero genre is it aging along with its audience. The Silver Age heroes had slightly more plausible origins than the Golden Age heroes, and the post-Fantastic Four Marvel comics were huge on college campuses because their angst and self-deprecating humor let them appeal to an older mentality. Not to take away from Moore's genius or the genius of Watchmen, but I'd say it was a mid-1980s manifestation of an on-going historical trend rather than the event that caused the historical trend to happen in the first place.
With Hercules and such, that had more to do with me and Greg Pak thinking that was central to who the character was, rather than as any kind of political stance against the rest of the genre. That said, as a writer I do find the power/revenge fantasies of some of the more popular superhero comics kind of tiresome. That may be because I'm now nowhere near as angry as I was when I was a picked-on nerdy kid.
The Mast: I personally LOVE how everything ties into one another in comics; the whole idea of comic universes is amazing to me and it's Marvel's realistically grounded heroes that appeal to me more than DC's traditionally over-powered ones. This brings me to my next question regarding big events (Civil War, Dark Reign etc). I found it a bit odd that The Mighty Avengers were in Realm of Kings while Hercules (Also in that issue) is off doing the New Olympus thing. Do you feel that sometimes things can be too tied together that they begin to slip out of continuity a bit, or is that something that you just have to turn a blind eye to wherever possible?
F.V.L: Those kinds of things are just an unavoidable result of creative teams working at different paces than each other and, for that matter, storylines moving at completely different paces within different books.
For example; Assault on New Olympus - which encompasses five issues and four months of the Incredible Hercules title - takes place, in storytime, at best, over maybe a twenty-four hour period. That's a third of a year in publishing time! So it could have easily happened before or after The M.A. went into space.
Frankly, if creative teams were forced to coordinate more precisely with each other, you'd see a lot of people quitting comics out of frustration - it just requires individual books to twist into too many narrative pretzels.
The Mast: Continuing with the idea of events; what's your opinion of event fatigue? I personally found the prospect of Dark Reign a bit daunting so soon after Civil War/The Initiative/Secret Invasion. Is it something that can't be helped, does there always need to be an event going on, or should they be kept relatively exclusive?
F.V.L: Events will end when people stop buying them; they boost the sales of every book that tie into them. When that stops happening, you'll know we've hit event fatigue.
The Mast: Who is your absolute favourite character to write for, who haven't you written for that you would like to, and what has been your favourite story that you've worked on? Regardless of company or whatever. Personally, I thought Action Philosophers was just beyond genius. I recommended it to my cousin's boyfriend and he said his philosophy teacher is a big fan!
F.V.L: Thanks! Honestly? My favorite book tends to be the one I'm working on now. That's not always the case, unfortunaely - sometimes you accept projects that end up not working out because of personnel, or the schedule, or turn out to be not great ideas in the first place - but I've learned to really love the act of writing. Going back and looking at the stuff later, however wonderful I may find it, never quite equals what was in my head. That's just the difference between the potential and the actual. My joy lies in the creation of the thing.
The Mast: As a fan, because I assume we're all fans at the end of the day, what comic series or storyline (Again, from any series) truly blew you away and really stuck to your memory?
F.V.L: I've always thought the last issue of Morrison and Case's Doom Patrol was the best final issue of any series I'd ever read. I think it was #60.
The Mast:I personally always thought that Mr. Sinister had the potential to be part of an amazing storyline, but he never seems to be used in any great capacity since Mutant Massacre. Is there any character that you really wish would get more play from the company they're at?
F.V.L: Sure, but I'm not telling the Internet...I don't need the competition because if I think that I'm going to pitch for it pretty soon...
So...uh, I'll say, Mr. Sinister! Yeah, that's it! He's great!
The Mast: Every time I see an Adi Granov cover, I'm floored by how amazing of an artist he is. Who is your favourite artist either to work with, or as a fan? I personally wish Granov did more regular work, but it seems like it takes a long time to make a just so much as a cover as detailed as he does (I LOVED his cover for Assault on New Olympus to the point that I am printing it out and putting it on my wall soon).
F.V.L: Well, again, this is a "Don't Tell the Internet" question because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by not naming them. I love them all! Yes, Adi's cover for the first two issues of New Olympus were da bomb.
The Mast: I suppose this question is inevitable, as it's regarding Disney's acquisition of Marvel. Personally, I found the sheer knee-jerk reaction of people to be astounding. Marvel have always sold things like Spider-Man plushies, bed-sheets etc. They even have a division called Marvel Kids, so it makes no sense to worry that anything'll change. What do you think of it?
F.V.L: Well, the head of Disney flew to New York and told the staff nothing was going to change, and Marvel will still be run how it was always run; and I don't see any reason not to believe him.
The Mast: For myself and everyone reading, what can we expect from the House of Van Lente in the near future? I pray it's not retirement.
F.V.L: Hell no! If I retire it will be to the cemetery.
Well, big, big announcements are coming for Hercules, which will be obvious by next month's solicits. The Awesome begins in the Spring.
Halo: Blood Line begins at the end of the month. It's been great working with those characters and the creative team at Microsoft.
My next storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man begins in the middle of December with the Sandman, and the origins of the villains featured in the mega-arc The Gauntlet, by me and a host of wonderful artists are on-going in Web of Spider-Man.
The Mast: Last, but by NO means least; I'm a Deadpool fan of around 16 years and an owner of ALL his appearances ever. WHEN are you going to write for him again?
F.V.L: I just finished proofing my next D.P. story before finishing this interview - look for it online by Christmas!
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That's all!
I want to, again, give a massive and immense "Thank You" to Mr. Fred Van Lente; what a genuinely terrific and inspiring worker. It was truly an honour speaking to him, meeting him previously and having him take time out to do this interview with me. He didn't have to, but he did, and I appreciate that immensely.
If you're curious about his work, go check out the following:
- Action Philosophers
- The Incredible Hercules on-going
- The Amazing Spider-Man & The Incredible Hercules: Assault on New Olympus
- X-Men Noir
- ANY of the upcoming releases mentioned in this interview!
Thank you all so, so much for reading and until next time, peace!
-The Mast
